Haunted
by Another Dilettante
Summary: When Ryuk had said that the price of using the Death Note included the stress and fear that's only experienced by the human using the notebook, well, having his victims haunt him wasn't what Light had in mind. Light begins to struggle as some of his victims start to haunt and torment him.
1. Chapter 1

As usual I don't own Death Note or the characters. I haven't uploaded anything on here in ages, I usually just like to read other peoples stuff now and then. I'm not typically much of a fanfiction writer, but since college has gotten stressful I've lost interest in my more original writings and needed a change of pace. This lets me practice writing in a form that people might actually see.

This is my first anything Death Note. I would like to turn it into a longer story if time allows and add more chapters. If anyone has any ideas feel free to post it in a review or message me. Reviews are always welcomed and appreciated. Sorry for any typos, read it multiple times but I always miss stuff. I might change the rating later on if it gets real violent, for now I will leave it.

Haunted

Light tensed at the sight of the setting sun. He hoped that tonight _they_ wouldn't appear or haunt his dreams; they always seemed to grow stronger and more frequent once night fell. When Ryuk had said that the price of using the Death Note included the stress and fear that's only experienced by the human using the notebook, well, having his victims haunt him wasn't what he had in mind. He could see being paranoid about having the authorities after him, but being haunted by his dead victims was something else entirely and extremely unexpected if not a bit unnerving.

When he had asked Ryuk about it, all the Shinigami had said was, "Haven't you ever heard of ghosts before?" The thing was, Light wasn't even sure if they were ghosts or some psychological phenomena tormenting him. Either way he just wanted them to go away. They were making it hard for him to concentrate properly and fall asleep at night. He tightened his grip on the curtain, balling part of it up in his hands as he watched a tall, dark shadow dart across the room from the corner of his eyes.

"Kira_,"_ the faint female voice whispered in his ear. He jerked his head to the side only to find nothing there. He let go of the curtain and walked back to the laptop sitting on his desk. Maybe he should have stayed elsewhere for the night. They seemed stronger in his own room, the place where he had written their names in the Death Note.

"Kira," he whipped around at the sound of the female voice and there standing in front of his door he saw a young woman. She wore a ripped pair of jeans and a plain, fitted t-shirt. Her skin had turned to a ghastly gray color. He recognized her. She had made it into the news for breaking into a house and killing the young man that lived inside. Thanks to Light, she had died of a heart attack the next day. A week later it had come out on the news that she had been innocent and wrongly framed. He had regretted killing her, but once L had come into his life he had more pressing issues to worry about and he soon forgot about her.

Ryuk laughed from where he floated beneath the ceiling. "What's wrong Light? Are they back? You look pale."

"Shut up, Ryuk." Light picked up his empty soda can and threw it at the girl. She disappeared when the can soared through her, just like Light had expected her to. She always did.

"You're getting temperamental," Ryuk chuckled. "Those ghosts must really be getting on your nerves."

"Can you see them?"

"I already told you, no. Maybe you're just imagining things."

"Does this happen to every human that owns a Death Note?"

"I don't know. You've figured out things about the notebook that I didn't even know. I think you've killed more humans with the notebook than any other past human owner. Maybe that's why you're seeing things. Or maybe your just crazy," Ryuk cackled.

Light watched as a white mist drifted in through the opening of his window and crawled down the wall. Well, that was new. He had grown used to the girl, and the shadows, but never before had he seen a mist. It made even less sense to him than the others. It wasn't even night yet and these things were already more active than usual. That didn't bode well for the rest of his night.

_Just ignore them._ He continually reminded himself. Angling himself away from the mist, he stared at his laptop screen. His hand itched to write in the Death Note, but he had to get this essay done. Besides, he already had his night scheduled out, he would write down names right before bed. With a sigh, he got back to work on his school essay about the string theory. He didn't expect his buffoon of a teacher to fully understand it, but the theory interested him and he didn't want to do a simple biography paper on Einstein or Newton like the rest of his class seemed to be doing. Besides, a challenging paper would do his teacher good; it was about high time that man started using his brain more.

A shiver tore his mind away from his paper again. A cold breeze drew his attention to his left leg and he froze as he watched the mist begin to climb up his leg, making him shiver again. Goose bumps erupted all over him. The mist had to be a good ten degrees colder than the rest of the air. He pushed his chair back and jumped up and made a motion as if to kick the mist but it disappeared before his foot made contact with it.

"What are you trying to kick?" Ryuk asked from where he lounged on Light's bed. In his right hand dangled an apple from where he held it above his head. Light watched him eat it in one bite while he hoped that his mother or sister hadn't noticed Ryuk steal the apple. He didn't want to deal with them panicking over floating apples.

"Just stretching," Light glared at his open window. He stomped over to it and closed it.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say, Light."

He turned back to the desk and balled his fists at the sight of the mist floating over his desk beside his laptop. If he couldn't get rid of the mist, then he could at least try to release some stress and he knew of the perfect way to do that. It would also let him try out an experiment while he was at it. He opened his desk drawer and opened the secret compartment. Pulling the Death Note out, he dropped it onto his desk right in the middle of where the mist floated. At the sound of a high screech he jerked and covered his ears. The mist zipped away from the notebook and went through the window, disappearing as it hit the rays of the setting sun.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Ryuk looked up from the school book he had snagged from Light.

"Why are you reading that?" Light raised his eyebrows at Ryuk, drawing attention away from his previous question.

"It's not like there is anything else for me to do around here. You won't let me watch TV so you can concentrate on school work so I had to find something else to do. If I wanted to be bored I would just go back to the Shingami realm."

Light waved a hand in dismissal at him as he sat back down at his desk. "You can turn the TV on, just keep down, okay?"

Without answering Ryuk leaped to the small portable TV that Light had moved onto his dresser and flipped it on.

Light mulled over his thoughts. So whatever the mist was, it feared the Death Note, due either to its power or the fact that it had been a victim of his written in it. If the other beings that wouldn't leave him alone also feared it, then perhaps he could use it as some form of protection. That would come with many obstacles though. He couldn't let anyone else see it; he wouldn't let L win just because he was scared of a few hallucinations or ghosts. He couldn't go waving it about out in the open or keep it on him. Taking it away from the spot he had secured for it was a risk he wasn't willing to take. He would have to stick to his usual habits with the notebook instead of changing things up just to avoid the ghosts or whatever it was that they were.

Before using the Death Note, he had never seen a ghost or had anything haunt him before. He hadn't even believed in the supernatural. Then again, if Gods of Death existed, then why not ghosts? He still couldn't decide if it was some curse of the notebook making him see things or actual spirits haunting him. If they were ghosts then he ran the risk of having more show up with each person he killed. He either needed to learn to tune them out or get rid of them.

"Kira,"her voice was close, within feet of him.

Light gritted his teeth, opened the Death Note, and began writing names.

"Kira, stop."

He ignored her and kept writing.

"Kira, please, stop, please…"

Getting annoyed all over again, he picked up the Death Note, turned, and swung it through her. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream but she disappeared before he could hear it. He glanced over at Ryuk, relieved that the Shinigami was too engrossed in the TV to have seen. He wasn't "crazy" and he hated when Ryuk used that word on him. That last thing he needed was for Ryuk to see him wave the Death Note around like a mad man at something that probably wasn't even actually there. After his homework was done he'd look up the girl. For the life of him he couldn't remember her name. Maybe looking her up would give him some inspiration on how to handle her or get rid of her since she was the only ghost he could identify. Maria? Had that been her name? Or maybe Marie?

"Light, Dinner!"

"Coming, mom," he closed his laptop and stretched before climbing to his feet and securing the Death Note away again. Ryuk ignored him as he walked past. Out in the hallway he watched as a dark shadow skittered down the hallway away from him and past Sayu who couldn't see it.

"You look tired, Light. Is everything alright?" his mom frowned as he took his seat at the dinner table.

"I'm fine, mom. School has just been a bit stressful."

"I don't know how you can manage staying at the top of your class, the stress has to be insane," Sayu gushed as she reached out and scooped some mashed potatoes onto her plate.

"You should take some time to relax; you're beginning to look a little worn down. Take some time to de-stress tonight."

"After dinner," Light stared at the food on the table in front of him, realizing that he didn't feel hungry in the slightest. Even the smell didn't send his stomach growling. Since he got the Death Note he had lost almost ten pounds. At this rate, by the end of the month his parents would be trying to send him to a therapist. The only thing he could do right now to keep his mom from worrying was to force some food down. He reached for the bowl of mashed potatoes and dished a spoonful onto his plate. Then he grabbed a piece of chicken and slowly began to dig in. The food went down without a problem, it just didn't feel or taste satisfying. He couldn't enjoy it. Eating felt like a chore and a habit. All the food tasted the same, just like it had for the past week.

"Dinner is great tonight mom, thanks."

"You don't always have to be so polite Light, you make me look bad!" Sayu complained, earning a laugh from their mom.

Light looked up at the TV to see what kind of pointless drama Sayu had turned on today. He could barely see it, a black shadow in the shape of a person hung around in front of the TV, making it look fuzzy. Sayu however, was completely focused on the TV. She didn't even look down at her plate as she ate; she kept her gaze on her show, sighing whenever her celebrity crush appeared. Nothing had ever appeared during dinner before; usually everything was contained to his bedroom. This couldn't be good.

"I think I'm going to go lay down, I'm really tired," Light excused himself as he stood up and grabbed his plate to take into the kitchen. He saw the shadow standing in front of the TV turn, or at least he thought he saw it turn. The shadow was ill defined and made it hard to be sure of anything. It floated into the kitchen behind him then followed him up the stairs, staying several feet behind him.

He had been planning on doing some more writing in the Death Note, but perhaps laying down would do him some good. Exhaustion could cause hallucinations and he hadn't been sleeping well lately. "I just need some extra sleep, and then I'll quit seeing things," he promised himself. He turned his light off and climbed into bed fully clothed, suddenly feeling exhausted and worn out. It didn't take him long at all to fall asleep. He fell asleep fast enough that he didn't even notice the black shadow hanging around in front of his window.


	2. Chapter 2

So this chapter is kind of the final intro to lead into more of the good stuff, and L makes an appearance. It's a little fast in this part, will probably be more drawn out after this. This is just kind of the finalizing of the intro leading into the deeper part of the story.

Chapter 2

Killing Raye Penber had been easy; it almost hadn't even been a challenge. Everything had gone perfectly, as Light knew it would. His fiancé had been a little harder, but her death only felt more satisfying in the end. Of course nothing went wrong; he went to great pains to try to not overlook anything. On top of their deaths, he felt more powerful than anything, he felt like a true god. But why shouldn't he? He had nothing to fear, justice always prevails in the end and in the end he will prevail. L would be a bit of a challenge, yes, but that would just make his death the most satisfying one yet to come.

On the surface, he looked nothing but cool and collected, his usual calm and studious self. Beneath his mask, however, there was a completely different story. Stress continued to pile up on him. Typically school was enough stress in itself, now he had L, and worse of all, the ghosts that wouldn't leave him alone. He was getting better at ignoring most of them, but some of them absolutely refused to be ignored, making it hard for him to concentrate at times and keep his secret hidden.

Before Raye Penber, all he had to do to escape his shadow tormenters was to leave his house. Most of them couldn't go much further since they cumulated around the Death Note itself. As long as he left it in its hidden compartment, he had nothing to worry about. During the day everything felt normal when he sat in class without the ghosts. But that just made going home and returning to the shades even harder after having a break away from them. Shades… he chose to call them that for he wasn't entirely sure of what they were exactly. He didn't like the term ghosts, he didn't believe in ghosts, and whatever these were he didn't see them as ghosts. They were more like lost souls, like the shades lost and wandering in the underworld in Greek mythology.

The tall black shadow that had the figure of a man that followed him all over his house unnerved him, although the shadow itself never made a sound. It seemed to enjoy watching the television as well. Whenever the news came on and talked about Kira the shadow would get worked up and distort itself into all kinds of odd positions that would be impossible for a living person, making the shadow look downright gruesome when it did this. It remained a silent watcher, it had yet to touch him or move anything.

The gold form that had recently appeared was completely different. It was the only one that could leave his house. In fact, it never went into his house at all. And this morning as he left for school proved no different. When he started down the sidewalk and glanced behind him, he saw the gold mist half hidden behind a fence.

"Penber," he gritted his teeth and forced himself to only look forward, ignoring the shade trailing him.

"What did you say?" Ryuk asked from his spot where he floated behind him.

"Oh? I don't know, I'm just studying for a quiz in my head, I must have said something out loud." As long as he acted normal, Ryuk always believed him.

"You brought me an apple, right?"

In response, Light pulled an apple out of his back pack and tossed it up to Ryuk who gleefully caught it with his mouth. Ryuk still swore that he couldn't see any of the shades whenever Light asked, and Light believed him. The Shinigami never reacted to any of them and never seemed to actually take notice of them. That and he never told Light he was being followed by the gold mist, that he had figured out on his own. It trailed him wherever he went, rarely following him into any buildings. It always patiently waited outside for him and usually hid itself quite well from him, well enough that he managed to forget about it sometimes.

School passed normally like every other day, albeit a bit boring. The longer he was Kira the more boring school seemed to become. Once he got home, his eagerness to execute his plan helped distract him from the shades that seemed to clamor around him as soon as he walked inside. He reminded himself to not think about them, and to instead think about the cameras and his plan.

The plan had sounded so easy in theory, and for once the shades stayed behind him where he couldn't see them, likely due to the Death Note. They typically didn't appear far from it, and yet they wouldn't get too close to it. It was as if the Death Note attracted and repelled them at the same time. Light was just grateful for the Death Note keeping them at bay. He couldn't risk them screwing up his plan. It would only take the right distraction at the right time for it all to fall to pieces and he couldn't have that. No, it could only be perfect, no exceptions.

When he stood outside and watched the garbage truck take away their garbage and the hidden TV he had thrown away with the chip bag, he thought he caught sight of the gold mist hiding behind his neighbor's car. It ducked back out of his sight and he frowned, feeling his high from his success starting to end. He jumped at the sound of a bang. Turning around and glancing back inside, he found the stack of school books that he had piled up on his desk were now in a mess on his floor.

"Light? Are you okay?" his mom called up from the stairs.

He hurried into the hallway to reply. "I'm fine Mom! Just dropped my school books is all."

"Well hurry up get down here, breakfast is almost ready."

He went back to his room and looked to Ryuk lounging on his bed. Ryuk shrugged at him. "Don't look at me; I've been over here the whole time."

So it had been one of them then. The stack of books had to weigh at least fifty pounds, and that meant at least one of them was getting stronger. Or maybe he was overthinking this and had just sat them too close to the edge. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed and kneeled down to gather the books up. "Just my luck," he grumbled. At least his plan had gone off without a hitch.

"Light," the phantom girl called out his name.

He tensed and walked out of his room, closing his door behind himself. Downstairs he found the tall black shadow watching TV on the couch. His mom had it turned on to some talk show. As if sensing his presence, the shadow turned toward him and left the couch. It chose to hover near Light while he ate breakfast. As usual, Light did his best to ignore it as he forced himself to eat. He couldn't concentrate much on the conversation around the table, all he could think about was writing more names in the Death Note. He craved it, longed for it. Damn L and his cameras. Without them, he could have written twice as many names since the cameras had gone up.

"Light?"

"Oh sorry, what mom?"

"I asked if you're okay, you're looking pale," her statement drew the attention of his father, who also looked across the table at him with concern.

"I'm fine, just tired is all with all the studying I've been doing lately."

"Watari, please come here," L called his caretaker over the intercom.

"Right away, sir."

L studied the footage he had pulled up from the cameras installed in the Yagami household while he waited and continued to muse over them. Surely they had malfunctioned somehow or something had gone wrong during installation.

"Yes, sir?" Watari asked as he appeared.

"Is there any chance that three of our cameras could be malfunctioning? You tested them all before installing them, correct?" He picked up a sugar cube and added it to his half empty coffee cup before taking a sip of it.

"I tested them all, none of them showed signs of any type of malfunctioning. I was very careful with installing them as well. Why do you ask?"

L switched to a full screen view of one of the camera shots. It showed Light sitting in his room at his desk, pouring over his school books, one hand holding onto his pencil the other a potato chip. "Do you see this dark shadow here?" he tapped at the very edge of a screen where part of a dark shadow could be seen. He switched to a different camera view of the same time, this time more of the shadow could be seen standing next to the window. "It also shows up in this camera, and this one," he switched to one last camera that gave the same view with a different angle. "All of these cameras are clustered near each other and each of them shows the same shadow at the same time. I've studied them all very carefully and each movement of this shadow shows up on all three different views. However, they do not show up on any other cameras…" L trailed off.

"It looks like a person, Watari mused aloud.

L nodded. "Yes, but it's not Light's shadow, you can already see his right here," he pointed to Light's shadow on the screen. "There is no one else in the room and Light takes no notice of it, which he would do if there was someone in his room. The shadow appears over several minutes of film before fading away. It also appears later that same night," he switched to a paused shot of Light sleeping, the shadow standing beside his bed as if watching him.

Goosebumps rose on Watari's arms, but he kept his composure. "Are you sure it's not a shadow from something else in the room?"

"I am 86% sure that it is not from any furniture in the room and I am 55% sure that three of our cameras have malfunctioned. Besides, it doesn't have the typical slant of a shadow; it stands straight up and down like a person instead of being cast over the floor at an angle."

"What else would it be if not a malfunction if the shadow isn't related to any of the furniture?" Watari couldn't hide the intrigue in his voice. The shadow looked like a person to him, he could even make out shoulders and arms.

"Something that I cannot explain yet," L traced over his bottom lip with his thumb as he stared intently at the shadow on the screen.

Watari couldn't hide his surprise, but L took no notice, he was too focused on the screen. "What do you mean by that?"

L slowly spun his seat around to look up at his caretaker, a look of innocence cast over his unreadable features. "Do you believe in ghosts, Watari?"

The question shocked Watari into silence for a moment while his mind fumbled with the surprising question. "I've never given them much thought and I've never encountered any such thing before."

"Neither have I," L gave him a quick wide eyed look before turning back to the screen. "There used to be an old religious belief that cameras and photographs could steal a person's soul and so those who believed such superstitions refused to be photographed. They also believed that souls or spirits would appear on camera," L picked up his coffee, studying it thoughtfully for a moment before finishing it off.

Watari stood behind him, at a loss for words.

"Can you get me another cup of coffee please?" L held his empty cup up to show Watari. Silently, Watari took it from him and headed to the small kitchenette in the hotel room to refill it while he thought over L's words, wondering exactly what the young genius was trying to get at. Certainly he couldn't be hinting that he believed in ghosts. L had never been religious or spiritual and he rarely spoke on the subject. When he was young he had once asked Watari to take him to a church service Sunday morning out of curiosity, but had never asked to return after that one time. L had once said to him that everything had a logical explanation behind it, that in time even the currently unexplained would be explained away. L always found the logic in things and refused to believe illogical reasoning.

He returned the now full glass to L, a cup of sugar cubes in his other hand. He sat them both down beside L who happily picked up a sugar cube and ate it. "Oh, Watari," he paused to finish his sugar cube. "One more thing, what do you make of this?" L switched the screen again. The new camera shot gave almost a full view of the room and an excellent view of Light's desk. Light could be seen at the edge of the frame, watching the street below. "Watch the desk, okay?" He hit play and Watari watched as a stack of books slowly slid towards the edge of the desk before finally falling off the edge and onto the floor. L paused the footage and looked back up at Watari expectantly.

"I have no idea," Watari slowly admitted.

L turned to his coffee and began filling it up with sugar cubes. "Well the good news is Light seemed just as surprised by it as us."

Watari didn't understand how that counted as good news, but didn't question L. If he questioned everything that L said that he didn't understand they would waste hours a day debating.

"Thank you Watari, you may go," L dismissed him. He took a test sip of his coffee before adding three more sugar cubes. Then he turned back to the screen and replayed the falling books. "Not what I expected to see, but still very interesting," L quietly admitted to himself. He'd have to ask chief Yagami if he had ever experienced anything odd in his house, or saw anything odd. He needed to rule out all possibilities. Everything had an explanation; he just had to find it first. Justice always finds a way.


End file.
